Chicago Bears Training Camp...Injuries

By Joshua Casey

I was having this conversation with my father the other day, and I was wondering how in the world do the Bears have so many injuries this early in camp? Look, I am well aware that football is a contact sport, but it seems to me that several of these injuries are not of the contact variety. When I hear a player pulls a muscle, my first thought revolves around how well stretched out each player is before practice or even more specifically, are these guys in NFL playing shape?

For the purposes of this article, let me identify one player in particular. Harvey Unga (running back) out of BYU pulled a hamstring on Monday. While Unga didn’t exactly enter the NFL under the most ideal circumstances (pregnant girlfriend), I am hoping that he would work on staying in playing shape. My guess is that his circumstances did not allow for proper conditioning and training. I would hope the Bears training/coaching staff would recognize this and perhaps hold Unga back until he got into NFL playing shape. These are little things that show a breakdown in the process.

[picappgallerysingle id=”1495617″]While Unga is not projected to be a starter, his size and speed makes him a very valuable candidate for reps in short-down situations. He could be a valuable asset to this team. However, if he needs to nurse this injury (and pulled hamstrings are tricky), one never knows when he will be on the field at a high level.

Considering that the starting safeties are out with injuries along with a few linebackers, this is not exactly what Lovie Smith and company envisioned when camp started. Its still early, but so far, not exactly a good sign.